On paper, Star Wars was a tough sell in the 1970s. But pitching it to execs is one thing; getting actors to actually agree to say and do all of what George Lucas wrote is another. And that’s pretty much why Al Pacino turned down the chance to play Han Solo in Star Wars; he may have already established a relationship with the Movie Brats with The Godfather but that didn’t mean he would go into hyperdrive for them.
However true or not, dozens of names have been tied to the role of Han Solo for 1977’s Star Wars, but one that has always been the most compelling is Al Pacino. And while he did get the screenplay hand-delivered to him, he couldn’t make much sense out of it, even if Pacino does have an air of nerf herder about him. As he told Entertainment Weekly, “I was doing a show on Broadway at the time, and they handed me this script, and I thought, I don’t understand…[I thought], I must be out of space myself. But I looked at this thing and I sent it to Charlie Loughton, my friend and mentor, actually. I said, ‘What do you make of this?’ He was pretty wise and he said, ‘I don’t get it, Al. I dunno. I don’t get it.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t either; what are we going to do? They offered me a fortune, but I don’t know. No, I can’t play something if I don’t speak the language.’”
Instead, of course, Han Solo went to someone with a pre-established working relationship with George Lucas, with Pacino joking, “I said, ‘I think I’m in the mood to make Harrison Ford a career.’” We just wonder if Pacino would have also wanted Han Solo killed off…Also, what’s the alternate universe like where Harrison Ford appears in Jack & Jill?
While Harrison Ford would be cast as Han Solo in early 1976, Al Pacino would shift focus to more serious dramas, wrapping up the ‘70s with the race-centric Bobby Deerfield and legal drama …And Justice For All, both of which earned him Golden Globe nominations.
How do you think Al Pacino would have done as Han Solo?
